The "olden" days of yore...

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there...."

I used to have a very large book of "'T'was the Night Before Christmas", which was read again and again and again....first of all by my father and then I took over the story to my children. I loved that book. It had enormous, beautifully colored pictures and I would sit mesmerized and wide-eyed. I remember the night Dad brought the book home after returning from a road trip. I had already been in bed but heard his laughter as he was welcomed home by Mom.

I was still in a crib in my parents room, so I wasn't more than three. It was a tiny house. I remember dad coming into the bedroom then, picking me up and sitting me on his knee in the big corner chair. Opening the huge book, he began the magical tale of Santa Claus and flying reindeer and gifts and candy. It held a spell over me for years as I continued to read and remember that first reading of my special book....by a wonderful father.

The stocking pictured above was my very own stocking which was hung up for years...well into my adult years and is still, as of this night, hung "in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there....". It has the green yarn my Dad used to darn the holes that had developed over the years, and the packaging string still pulls through a hole in the top to hold the stocking which would contain various Santa-delivered goods.

Sometimes Santa would bring "ribbon candy" which we would devour in huge chunks of spicy sweetness on Christmas morning.

Yes, dear Santa Claus. He still comes by our place every Christmas Eve.

I wonder what he'll bring me this year. I think I've been pretty good.....well, except for that one time when...........oh, and then another time......ya, and then the time when.......oh gee, I'll most likely get coal.............:-(